How My Earnings Dropped From $900 A Month To $345 In Three Months

It’s happening all around us

Around April of this time last year, I posted my first article. I came over from Quora and heard great things about Medium! Finally, I will get paid to write about the misery I was experiencing in a relationship I couldn’t seem to escape!

There was light at the end of the tunnel

If I was going to open up, at least I could get paid a little. I dabbled with some articles as I felt it out and started taking it seriously around June. I was adamant about posting at least one article a day.

It was a rough first month, and I made a whopping 16c, yep, that’s right, 16c. Again, that was only 2–3 articles in April. Then in May, I kicked it up a little but still wasn’t comfortable with the formatting of Medium, and I might have posted 7–8 articles and earned $16! Significant improvement from not making anything to actually earning a little.

In June, the following month, I decided to write one story a day for 30 days. In that time, I earned an unexpected $500 top engagement bonus and over $300 in regular earnings. You can read about that here with my article on my experience with Medium at the six-month mark.

It’s about progress, not perfection, as my earnings climbed.

After June, that really lit a fire under my ass! I figured it out! I would be making $2000 a month in no time! But would I? Over the next few months, my earnings increased by 15–20% per month!

Then something happened!

I was used to getting 25–30K views a month with a 60% read rate, and I was told that is great for a newbie. But somewhere around January, everything seemed to go to hell. My reads, views, fans, and every stat imaginable deteriorated. It wasn’t drastic; it was a slow bleed, making the decline a little digestible, but it still wasn’t a good feeling.

I was doing the same thing I always did. I posted one story a day and stayed on topic with my target audience. But for some reason, the steady increase in earnings took a 180-degree turn in the opposite direction and slowly tanked.

When the bottom falls out, it falls out.

I wrote January off as a holiday month. I justified the decline because readers spent more time with their family and away from the computer. But when February hit and the same drop happened, I questioned my theory.

Then came March, my worst month yet; what was happening? I tried to change it up. I went to write every other day, didn’t work. I tried writing on different topics, but that didn’t work either. I blamed a new algorithm Medium implemented; yea, that’s it! Medium is fucking with my money! I knew it!

Then I thought, maybe it could be just me? I have written on manipulative relationships and narcissism for the better part of two years now. I know I was burned out on it, and maybe my readers were too?

Maybe it’s time to rebrand my writing style

As I work more and more on putting the toxic relationship behind me, I am losing my pep to write on the topic. My reads fly off the chart if I write in full-fledged melt-down mode. My reads go stagnant if I write in a melancholy, calm state. It also doesn’t help that I have been in curation jail for over seven weeks. I believe I ended up here due to an article deleted by Medium because of my opinion on the Vaccine, but that’s a whole other article.

Not sure how much curation really plays into this madness, but it is frustrating. I think it’s time to change things up, drop the narcissism anger writing, and redirect it to my healing, travel, and life lessons.

The message I am trying to bring to light.

When things are good, they are good, and when they are bad, they are bad. While it’s frustrating as hell, I am trying to find a lesson in all of this. It could be a combination of everything I talked about above, or it could just be me.

Who knows?

As for now, I will keep writing. I will write until the day I don’t get any enjoyment out of it. It’s tough for me because I live a life of instant gratification, as I believe most do; it’s a frustrating way to live. I need to learn more about the tortoise and the hare.

I need to embrace the turtle in me.

If you have noticed a decline in your earnings, please drop me a comment.

Happy writing!